NEWS OF THE WEEK.
• THE job of manufacturing a new House of Commons is finished. The workmen have put their article out of hands. They cannot now alter the nature of the -thing they have made but must make the best of it till it be broken up again. The kind of stuff it is made of—how it will weer and work—can only be learned by the test Of experiment. Qualities and capabilities—good, had, or in; different—ithas inherent in its nature, which washing or tinker- ing cannot alter ; but what they are must be left to time to show. The aptitade of this new machine to subserve the purposes of any party or party leaders is very uncertain. - If any reliance can be placed on professions, or trustworthy inferences drawn from antecedents, there will 'be about 310 Miaisterialists and 344 Non- Ministerialists in the House of Commons. *- But Many Non-Minis- terialists are-sifspiciouslY ostentatious in. professions of anxiety to eschew factious apposition; • and some Ministerialiats, hampered by :previous declarations,, may- not 'always be able- to offer Lord Derby a thoroughgoing snpport: Ministers; havever; - it appears The & surface, have failed toobtain an absolute .majority. But their • supporters maintain that the - incompatible views of the aiffprpnt sections of Opposition render it impossible to combine them for any -effective assault upon Ministers or their poliey. Is the Ministerial photo rile- less obnoxious td internal dissensions than the Opposition ? Mr. Disraeli, since the Buckinghamshire non;iination, has disappeared from public view. -He is understood to be, like the adepts or thaumatargi of old, labouring in mystic seclusion at the concoction of his grand panacea—or like Mehemet in his cave, devising a new chapter of the Koian to meet some unforeseen exigency—or like Friar Bacon, elaborating by word and spell his brazen head. But when the great work is completed, what 'chance has it of the unanimous approval of Mr. Disraeli's party ? Will that which meets the wishes of converts bent on crossing the desert of Free-trade into which they have been led, satisfy those who still hanker after the flesh-pots of Protection?
Disraeli is prepared to conform to "the spirit of the age," but will he be able to persuade, not merely his bucolical supporters, but-even some of his fellow-placenien, to follow his example?
The showy or substantially useful qualities likely to be brought into play by the new House of Commons are not less problematical. The number of unknown, or at least untried Members, is very great—nearly one-third of the whole House. In a good many instances it will be found that one cipher has taken the place of another ; and the only use of ciphers is to make up sums in nota- tion. But there have been also changes among the more restless mid pushing spirits whose doings and sayings determine the action of the Legislature, or at least impart a characteristic tone to its proceedings. Many useful Members of the old Parliament will be missed when the new House shall assemble. It will not be easy to sup- ply the natural aptitude and ripe experience of Messrs. Bernal and Greene in conducting the Committee business.- The loss of the Statistical knowledge of Messrs. Cardwell and -Cornewall Lewis will be felt in discussions which require it. The exclusion of Mr.
* Such are the Spires indicated by our own classified lists; but they are subject to three qualifications. In the first place, some few seats are in a state of uncertainty. For Bnaresborough there are three returned instead of two, including 1 3iinisterialist ; Orkney completes its poll today, and is left blank in the list ; and there are two vacancies, for Oldham and Peter- borough, created by death since the election. A second qualification to be made in the totals arises from the uncertainty how to class the 36 " Doubt- fuls" enumerated by the Globe : subtract them from the Liberals, and you leave a Ministerial majority of 2; add them to the Ministerialists, and ' Ministers would have a majority of 38. The third qualification arises from the difficulty of classing a large portion of the whole—all-the waverers, de- serters, converts, or men of neutral tint. One Opposition paper gives a Non- Ministerial majority of 86; the most sanguine of the Ministerial organs claims the decisive majority of 43. All the computations vary. Piney will &treat from the 'dignified and rational tone of the tempered Conservatism of the House; Some of the old landmarks have fallen. Mr. Hodges, the Liberal country gentleman, Sir George Clerk, the accurate and experienced man of business, are no longer there. The O'Connell family is diminished to a single member, the great Agitator's ‘.‘. son Maurice." In Lords Ebruig- ten, Duncan, and Melgund, three of the most intelligent and hard- working of the rising aristooracy, have been lost. The weight of conformable Whiggism is lessened by the subtraction of men like Sir George Grey, Sir William Somerville Mr. Tennyson D'Eyn- court, Mr. M'Cullagh, and Sir Jahn Roinilly. Mr. Wakley's ab- sence will detract occasionally from the spirit of debates; • Mr. Hors- man -will cease to startle drowsy decorums by his onslaughts on the Church; Colonel Thompson will no longer relieve a dull pa- laver by pithy truth quaintly expressed. Sir Edward Buxton's
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defeat s a severe blow to Exeter IT 1 The throwing overboard of men like Admiral Bowles, Alderman Sidney, or Mr. Baillie Cochrane, relieves the vessel from a little dead-weight,, or light articles like hen-coops that cumber the deck or are in the way.
Mr. Urquhart was an eccentricity out of doors, but his presence in. the House was so little felt that he will not be missed. With Mr. Anstey will be withdrawn some industrious talent and many
speeches of intolerable length; with Sir Winston Barron, Mr. Grat- tan, and Mr. Reynolds, a good deal of roaring to split the ears of the groundlings ; with Mr. George Thompson, some dreary oratori- cal-platitudes. .The non-appearance of Messrs. Sharman Crawford. and W. J. Fox lessens the number of prononce individual pecu- liarities. Mr. George Frederick Young is appropriately left out along with Protection. Of the substitutes for these elisions little in general is 'Mown. The restoration of Mr. Macaulay is a gain for the intellectual and largely-informed character of the House. • Sir Edward Lyt- ton, too, returns, but in altered circumstances and with a new political creed. The atmosphere of the House of Commons is a trying one, but Mi. Charles Duffy is belieyed to possess capabilities unsuspected by those who know him only from his connexion. with Young Ireland. Mr. Lucas is reputed to have energy and considerable oratorical powers; but, "more Papist than the Pope," he seems to have trained his faculties to a passionate fantastic sectarianism- With more of robustness and rnailinoss than Mr. Fox, but with less of mind and accomplishment, Mr. Midi will scarcely be so favourable a specimen of Nonconformity as that gentleman. Dr. Layer& from natural talents and experience of varied life Lord Goderich and Sir John Shelley, as promising spe- cimens of life, young landed aristocracy, are not unlikely to prove acquisitions. Mr. Batt will keep alive the succession of ready and fluent speakers, of whom Ireland has always sent us such store. But the immense majority of the new men appear to belong to the classes of dumb and doughty squires, merchants and manufac- turers with more money than legislative capacity, lawyers desirous of getting on in the world, and railway speculators. Of the old leaders enow have survived the (lances of election- contests to assume the direction of the new House and it does not appear that their ascendancy is much endangered by any of the recent accessions. The reins of government amid stormy debates will continue to be held with tact and firmness by Mr. Shaw Le- fevre. Lord John Russell, Mr. Labouehere Sir Francis Baring, and their surviving colleagues, will adhere to their time-honoured jogtrot. Messrs. Hume, Cobden, and Bright, will repeat their stereotyped ideas. Sir William Molesworth and Mr. Roebuck sur- vive, the sole representatives of the Philosophical Radicals, Sir James Graham, who appears to have been readmitted to full com- munion in the Whig Church-political, will shine in debate as of old. Mr. Gladstone will continue to adorn if not to lead the thinned phalanx of Peelites ; and Mr. Disraeli to find his mute or unreasoning colleagues and supporters in specious phrases and ingenious devices, if not in ideas and plans of action. Mi. Drum- mond will startle the House now and then by his sallies of genial eccentricity. In an intellectual point of view Colonel Sifithorp, in a moral Mr. George Hudson, show how unexacting some con- stituencies are in respect to the qualifications of candidates. In all its essentials, the House of Commons seems little changed by the recent elections, except in a slightly-increased torpidity and feebleness, the inevitable work of tune ou men and their works. A general election is supposed to be for the House of Commons what Medea's kettle was for old son; but in the present in- stance the venerable gentleman appears to have passed through the process not merely without having his youth restored, but posi- tively without having the insidious progress of old age arrested.
